


Purple sunset

by ToxicPineapple



Series: Rantaro Amami Week 2k19 [4]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Banter, Breaking The Law.jpg, Climate Change, Conversations, Dialogue Heavy, Friendship, Gen, I'm sorryyyy it comes up a lot more in this piece than I realised, Light introspective, Lighthearted, Rantaro Amami Week, They're All Adults Now, Trespassing, Which means they're responsible for their actions, don't break the law kids, miu being miu, sunset
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-16 13:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20828111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: “Sure they do!” Kokichi beams, nudging Gonta with his elbow. “Haven’t you ever read that book, The Trespassing Gentleman? It’s a total bestseller and definitely shows a perfect example of a gentleman!”“Is that true?” Gonta asks, and he’s still frowning.“Are you suggesting that I would lie to you? Me, Gonta?” Kokichi’s eyes well with tears.“Well, Gonta isn’t saying Ouma wouldn’t lie to him-” Gonta starts.“You’re so mean!” Kokichi declares, and bursts into sobs.---Rantaro takes some of his friends to watch the sunset.---Amami week day four: Risk/Sunset





	Purple sunset

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts:  
Day one (Sept 27): Autumn/Wealth  
Day two (Sept 28): Sail/Bracelet  
Day three (Sept 29): Paint/Breeze  
Day four (Sept 30): Risk/Sunset  
Day five (Oct 01): Travel/Blame  
Day six (Oct 02): Vehicle/Found  
Day seven (Oct 03): Birthday/Smile

Rantaro shifts his car into park and releases a breath of relieved air that he hadn’t realised he was holding. It’s not like he never drives places- he has to drive a lot more often than he’d like, most times- it’s just that it never gets easier, being in such a small space. He’s really considering buying a convertible, like his father suggested, but that’s really extra so if possible he wants to avoid that unless it’s absolutely necessary. Every day it seems more and more like it’s going to be, though.

“Wow! There are a lot of trees here!” Kokichi sticks his head through the gap between the driver’s seat and passenger’s seat; Rantaro turns his head to the left, resting one of his arms on the steering wheel to look at the other man, a small smile quirking his lips.

“Know any of them?” He asks, amidst the quiet yawn from the backseat that indicates that Himiko is finally beginning to wake up. Kokichi makes a face at him.

“Do you really think I know anything about trees? Don’t be boring, Amami, you’re better than this.” Kokichi rolls his eyes and crosses his arms across his chest. “What reason does a  _ supreme leader  _ have to learn anything about trees?”

“They’re a huge carbon sink.” Himiko mutters tiredly. “And the only reason we’re alive.” She yawns again. “Nyeh… that was a long drive.”

“Himiko was conked out!” Chirps Angie from where she’s sitting, crammed illegally between Himiko (who’s next to the door on the passenger side) and Kokichi (who is, of course, sitting on the hump). “Angie managed to stop Kokichi from eating your food, though,” she adds, and passes Himiko the bag they got from a drive-thru. The magician gives her girlfriend a wide, albeit sleepy and disoriented, smile that lights up her red-brown eyes as she opens the paper bag and peeks inside. “There is also an apple juice up there for you in the front seat to replenish your mana.” Angie adds.

“Gonta hopes it’s still cold,” frowns Gonta, from where he’s sitting in the passenger seat. He grabs the apple juice and passes it back to Himiko, whose mouth is now full of grilled cheese. Rantaro snorts at the sight, watches as Angie cheerfully wipes crumbs off her upper lip, and pulls his keys from the ignition. They’re here, of course, but they can wait for a moment while everyone wakes up. Ryoma, who’s surprisingly asleep on the other side Kokichi, was awake while they got the food, and so was Miu, but they both conked out after eating. Miu still has a half-eaten hamburger in her hand, though.

“Wake up, slut,” Kokichi reaches over Ryoma and jabs Miu in the side. Rantaro sighs. He was going to suggest they allow the two to wake up naturally, but it’s fine. They can just do that instead.

“Eeeee!” Miu snaps awake, instinctively covering her face with her burger. “D-Don’t call me a- hey, wait, why am I taking shit from a twink?”

“Twink?” Kokichi gasps. “That’s so mean!”

  
“Iruma!” Gonta frowns. “Ouma! That is not very kind behaviour!”

“We just got here and you’re already disappointing Gonta.” Himiko glowers through another mouthful of grilled cheese. “Unforgivable.”

“Oh, no, Gonta’s not disappointed,” Gonta starts, and Rantaro chuckles, shaking his head.

“It’s alright, Gonta.” He assures, putting a hand on the larger man’s shoulder. “They’re all just messing around.”

“Oh.” Gonta pauses. “Alright then!” He smiles, and Rantaro can’t help returning the expression before he looks back at his friends. All five of them are crammed into the backseat because nobody else in their friend group has a car except for Kaito and Kaito is busy with his girlfriend (Maki, of course) so it’s not like he could come. It’s alright, though. Rantaro is pretty sure that he wouldn’t be able to handle both Kokichi and Kaito at once. Forget that they hate each other, they’re both so high energy… having Miu here is exhausting enough. But he loves all of them nonetheless.

“Ryoma, wake up,” Angie sings, leaning over Kokichi to put her face right next to Ryoma’s. Kokichi wrinkles his nose but manages to avoid commenting, which Rantaro thinks is great progress honestly. “We’re here and God says you’ll miss it if you don’t wake up!”

“We could just carry him there-” Rantaro starts to say.

_ “He’ll miss it.”  _ Angie insists, with one of those scary smiles, and Rantaro smiles but doesn’t say anything else, because whenever she does that he feels genuinely afraid for his life.

“Hoshiii,” Kokichi whines. “My legs are cramped from sitting for so long. Wake uuuuuppp,” he wiggles around, which ends up shaking the whole car, and Rantaro feels his stomach fold in half because that’s pretty much his worst fear, being in an enclosed space that’s  _ moving  _ of all things, but he swallows it down and keeps his smile tacked to his lips. “I’m gonna start a forest fire if you don’t-”

“Ouma!” Gonta cries. “Do  _ not  _ start a forest fire!”

“Ouma, what the heck.” Himiko deadpans.

“That’s pretty fuckin illegal, even for you.” Miu points out with a frown. “Plus, you’ll be contributing to global warming.”

“Ugh, you’re all so boring. Maybe I  _ wanna  _ speed up global warming.” Kokichi pouts.

“Angie disapproves of murder but if Kokichi does anything that even remotely causes the speed of climate change to accelerate, Kokichi will not live to see tomorrow.” Angie smiles.

“Noted.” Kokichi squeaks, an octave higher than usual.

“What’s all the commotion…” groans Ryoma, at an appropriate time in the conversation to stop Angie from threatening to kill people.

“We’re here,” Rantaro says through a very forced smile. “And you’re awake now, so let’s start walking, huh?”

A few minutes and a couple petty squabbles later, they’re all out of the car and walking behind Rantaro. He glances back a few times to check that they’re actually following him, but other than that he remains at the front of the group, watching the path that he’s leading them down. They’re his best friends, and they have been since college, but man, they can be exhausting. He’s not regretting going on this trip with them, but he’s starting to wonder if not bringing someone like Kaede or Kirumi, who have the backbone and the authority to keep them all under control, was a bad idea.

Himiko falls into step next to him, both of her hands clutching her apple juice (which is partially empty by now) and Angie’s yellow rain jacket draped over her shoulders. She looks even smaller when she wears large clothing like that, and it kind of makes Rantaro to wrap her in a blanket and put her to sleep. It’s not necessarily an uncommon urge for him but he doubts that he’d be able to do it without Himiko feeling weird about it. Which is honestly fair.

“You don’t like cars much, right?” Himiko asks, and Rantaro glances at her for a moment before nodding. “Why do you have one, then?”

“I value convenience over personal comfort.” He replies, smiling slightly, and shrugs. “It’s not a huge problem. I can usually ignore it if I focus on something else. Which I tend to do when I’m driving. Y’know, since I focus on the road.”   
  


Nodding sagely, Himiko says, “You’re a responsible driver. Not like anyone else. I would not trust Ouma behind the wheel. No way.”

“Oh?” Rantaro feels his lips curling up into a more teasing smile. “Isn’t he your best friend?”   
  


Pulling her hat down over her eyes, Himiko shoots him a glare that suggests she’s going to say something sulky. “Duh. If anything that’s how I know he can’t be trusted driving. I wouldn’t let most of you drive me anywhere. I’d rather use my magic to teleport and be out of MP for a couple weeks than be behind the wheel with someone like Iruma.” She sighs. “Even Saihara doesn’t trust him driving and they’ve been dating for like three years.”

“I don’t really think Ouma entirely knows how to drive.” Rantaro admits, glancing back to check and see if Kokichi heard him. It wouldn’t be an issue if he did, of course, because he doubts Kokichi would be genuinely hurt or offended, but Rantaro’s not really in the mood to be tackled to the ground right now. “So you probably don’t have to worry about that.”

“I’m always worrying about it.” Himiko assures him, and Rantaro finds himself laughing.

“Hold up a minute!” Miu’s voice yells from behind them, and Rantaro and Himiko stop walking, turning around to see where the blonde is pointing. “Am I crazy or does that sign say private property? Are we breaking the fucking law?”   
  


“Yeah,” Rantaro shrugs.

“Fair enough.” Miu nods, and keeps walking. “I just wanted to check and make sure this was a conscious choice on your part.”

“W-Wait, is it illegal to be here?” Gonta looks conflicted. “Because gentlemen don’t trespass…”

“Sure they do!” Kokichi beams, nudging Gonta with his elbow. “Haven’t you ever read that book,  _ The Trespassing Gentleman?  _ It’s a total bestseller and definitely shows a perfect example of a gentleman!”

“Is that true?” Gonta asks, and he’s still frowning.

“Are you suggesting that I would lie to you? Me, Gonta?” Kokichi’s eyes well with tears.

“Well, Gonta isn’t saying Ouma  _ wouldn’t  _ lie to him-” Gonta starts.

“You’re so mean!” Kokichi declares, and bursts into sobs.

  
“W-Wait! Ouma, don’t cry!” Gonta panics a bit. “It’s okay, Gonta is coming!”

“He played Gonta like a damn fiddle.” Ryoma mutters as he walks past, and Rantaro chokes on a laugh. This is pretty normal behaviour for Kokichi, so Rantaro is pretty unconcerned as Kokichi climbs onto the gentle giant’s back for a piggy back ride. With that settled, they all start walking again, and this time Ryoma is at his side, as well as Angie, because Himiko ends up in a conversation with Miu, and they lag behind a little bit.

“So, so!” Angie tilts her whole body to the side, rather than just her head, and fixes Ryoma with an owlish stare. “What is Ryoma thinking?”

“Hm?” Ryoma raises an eyebrow.

“Well, he only makes that face when he’s thinking hard about something, yes? Where his eyebrows furrow and his lips curl down? So what is he thinking?” Angie is a lot more perceptive than she acts sometimes. It must be part of the reason why she’s such a good artist. Ryoma seems to consider her question for a long moment before shrugging.

“Kinda risky, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” Rantaro asks, glancing at Ryoma. The shorter man shrugs, and despite his words doesn’t seem all that concerned, but elaborates anyway.

“Trespassing. Breaking the law. Not that I’m a stranger to that,” he averts his gaze. “But can the rest of you risk getting in trouble like this?”

“I think it is very generous of you to presume that Kokichi doesn’t constantly get in trouble like this every day of his life.” Angie giggles. “But God says it is going to be fine, and so it will.” She hums, and touches Ryoma’s shoulder. “Ryoma would do good to trust him once and a while, yes?”

“To be fair, I can’t exactly  _ hear  _ him like you can…” Ryoma trails off, perhaps realising that he’s humouring her, and lets out a sigh, reaching into his pocket for his pack of candy cigarettes. Even though they’re not real cigarettes, Rantaro still doesn’t like them much, because that much candy is bad for your teeth, but they seem to be a comfort item of Ryoma’s so he doesn’t comment. There are much worse things to cope with, after all. (Real cigarettes come to mind.)

Rantaro turns his attention back onto the trail, and then sees the large pile of rocks on his right that indicates that they’re almost there. A few moments later and they step out into a clearing, which actually isn’t a clearing as it dips down a jagged edge; a cliff. Grinning, Rantaro moves forward near the edge of the cliff and leans forward, looking down into the valley and feeling the familiar drop of his stomach when he thinks about how high he is. It’s a bit scary but it’s mostly just thrilling. And from here, he has a perfect view of the sun, which has begun to set.

“Thank god,” he says quietly. “We didn’t miss it.”

“Miss what?” Miu’s voice asks. “This your favourite masturbation spot or something?”

Rantaro shoots her a sour look. “Keep those things to yourself, please.”   
  


“Eeee! Your sense of humour is so conservative!”

“I’m not  _ conservative,  _ I’m just-”

“Sexually repressed?” Kokichi offers, cutting him off.

“If you asked Kiyo, I’m sure he’d tell you that that couldn’t be farther from the truth,” Rantaro says cooly, looking at his fingernails. He looks back up again, grinning, when Kokichi audibly gags.

“I don’t want to hear about your sex life with the bondage man!” Kokichi cries.

“Don’t make fun of it, then,” Rantaro crosses his arms, and Ryoma chuckles next to him, shaking his head.

“You’re enabling everyone here to make fun of you, Amami.” Ryoma points out softly, and Rantaro shoots him a smile, because he’s absolutely right.

With that they all sit down. Angie dangles her legs over the cliff edge until it freaks out Himiko and she’s forced to sit cross legged a safe distance away with everyone else. Himiko leans into her side, sipping her apple juice, and Gonta places Kokichi down on the ground before going and sitting down next to Miu, who immediately starts talking to him about kid’s shows, or something. Ryoma sits next to Gonta, quietly listening, but his eyes are on the skyline.

Rantaro, meanwhile, seats himself a fair amount of space away from the larger group, and is hardly surprised when Kokichi flops down next to him and rests his head against his arm. He shifts around to be more accommodating of the smaller man, smiling slightly and watching the sun turn the sky a wide variety of purples and pinks and reds. It’s always the prettiest this time of day; the clouds seem the most three dimensional right now and they take on those colours too, like cotton candy.

“Y’know,” Kokichi speaks up. “The sky is only all of those colours because of pollution. The purples and stuff.”   
  


Sighing, Rantaro remarks, “Way to kill the moment, Kich.”

“I’m not killing the moment, I’m just saying.” He smiles, though, which means he’s  _ definitely  _ killing the moment. Rantaro can’t make himself feel angry, though. “But yeah, I mean, it is pretty. Would be pretty if the world wasn’t dying, though.”

“Doesn’t that just give you more incentive to save it?” Rantaro asks curiously. “All the beauty in it?”

“That’s a weird way to think of it.” Kokichi mutters. “Usually pretty things that are about to die just make me sad.”

“You’re not exactly the perfect model of a productive mindset,” Rantaro points out.

“I can’t even be mad at you because you’re right.” Shaking his head, Kokichi looks back out at the sky, watching as the sun starts to sink out of their view, and the stars start to come out. There’s not much light pollution out here, which means that in a few minutes, when the sun is gone, the stars will all be overhead. For the moment, though, Rantaro absorbs the fading sunset energy, closing his eyes and breathing in the clean forest air. “Nice of you to take us here.” Kokichi says, more quietly now. “A lot of these losers needed this, probably.”

“Oh yeah?” Rantaro raises an eyebrow.

“Well, not me, obviously. Supreme leaders want for nothing, after all. Besides, I already have everything!” Kokichi giggles. “I could demand that everything be dismantled and look at the stars from home any time I wanted.”

“Is that so?”

“Nope.” Kokichi’s face goes blank. “Or else I would’ve done it already.”

And then they’re both quiet, and this moment feels melancholy, like Rantaro is looking at the memories of a world that once was, rather than the one they’re living in now. It’s sad, but it’s happy too, in a way. Peaceful and quiet and Kokichi’s light against his arm. Miu is always so loud but she sounds happy, and comfortable. Gonta brings that out in people. And Himiko has fallen asleep again already, her head in Angie’s lap.

It’s a good moment, overall. One that Rantaro wouldn’t miss for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Tenkaede is also canon in this you didn't need to know that but I thought I'd tell you anyway
> 
> not that I'm necessarily planning on continuing this but you know when you're writing a oneshot and other parts of the universe outside the realm of the piece come into your head??? yeah.
> 
> anyway
> 
> nice


End file.
